The present invention relates generally to vehicular load carriers, and more specifically to load carrier feet and anchors used in the attachment and support of load carriers upon a transporting vehicle.
It is appreciated that a considerable amount of the time that is required to install a load carrier upon a vehicle is that time which is spent on the assembly of the carrier itself before its being attached to the transporting vehicle. As a result, it has been found to be an advantageous feature of carrier designs to enable installation and removal of a partially or fully assembled load carrier on to and off a transporting vehicle.
Known designs for carrier feet that can be installed upon and disconnected from the transporting vehicle while the carrier remains assembled are typically engaged upon a base fixed to the vehicle using a sliding motion parallel to the longitudinal axis of both the carrier foot and the transporting vehicle. This becomes problematic when the entire carrier is to remain assembled during removal because each foot typically must be simultaneously removed by being slid it off or out of its respective base together with the other feet. Similar difficulty is encountered when trying to install an assembled carrier onto a transporting vehicle""s rooftop or other receiving surface. Each foot must be slidingly engaged upon its respective base, and because that base may not be a perfect fit with the foot, or the base may have become fouled while the foot was disengaged, sliding of the foot onto the base may be resisted. This experience has been likened to trying to slide a sticky drawer into a bureau. Previously, when the feet would each be individually installed upon the respective bases before the load carrier was assembled thereto, an operator could move about the transporting vehicle and manipulate each foot individually. Normally this includes wiggling the carrier foot onto the base in order to slide the carrier foot progressively into a properly seated position upon the base. Having configured each foot, the carrier could then be assembled thereupon. A compounding problem of such a process, however, is that the carrier feet are usually upon the roof of a transporting vehicle at this stage in the process and resultantly assemblage of the load carrier must be awkwardly carried out atop the vehicle. Necessarily, the operator will be reaching atop the transporting vehicle to complete the installation of the load carrier and be required to frequently move about the vehicle because that person""s reach will be limited by the rooftop location.
Similar problems can be encountered when only a cross bar or strut is connected between two opposite feet and which must be installed to extend from one side to the other of the transporting vehicle. It will be difficult, if not impossible for a single person working alone to slide each foot onto its respective base because he or she will not be able to simultaneously align both feet with the two respective bases as is required for proper sliding engagement.
Conventional designs for such support feet have required in the past that an exterior cover be opened in order to expose for manipulation the operating device that affects the fastening of the carrier foot to its base. Therefore, when installing the foot upon the base, the exterior cover would normally be open so that the operating device can be manipulated into an open configuration for engagement upon a base or directly to a vehicle. Once engaged, however, the operating device must then again be manipulated to a closed or clamping configuration for fixing the foot to the base or vehicle. The exterior cover of the carrier foot is then closed and locked to prevent unauthorized tampering with the operating device. From the experience of working with these conventionally designed carrier feet, it has been recognized as desirable to minimize not only the exposure of the internal working parts of the foot, but to also minimize required operator interaction during the installation process when both hands can be better used for properly positioning at least the several feet, and possibly an entirely assembled carrier with respect to the various connection points for attachment thereto.
Another drawback of conventionally designed carrier feet is that they do not typically include an accommodation for adapting to differently configured vehicle mounting surfaces. This is particularly true in cases where the feet are attached to bases at the vehicle""s roof at edge regions where contoured slopes are generally incorporated into the vehicle""s design. Normally, the base for the foot is rigidly attached to the vehicle""s roof in this sloped region and it is the carrier foot that is specially designed to be fixedly attached to that particular type of vehicle/base combination to compensate for the roofs configuration. As a result, the manufacturer of the feet must essentially provide custom designs for differently configured vehicles. It has been recognized as highly desirable by such manufacturers to enable a generic carrier foot design to be utilized on a wide range of differently configured transporting vehicles. Because the primary characteristic affecting this aspect of the design is the degree of slope at the roof region where the base is attached, it has been recognized for the present invention that facilitating pivotation of the carrier foot with respect to the base in the direction substantially parallel to the cross bar with which attachment must be made permits utilization of a uniformly designed carrier foot on multiple and differently configured transporting vehicles and bases.
In view of the above-described deficiencies associated with known designs for load carrier feet, the present invention has been developed to alleviate these drawbacks and provide benefits to the user, which have been appreciated as desirable at least partially through historical use of these known designs. These enhancements and benefits are described in detail herein below with respect to several alternative embodiments of the present invention.
The present invention in its several disclosed embodiments alleviates the drawbacks described above with respect to conventionally designed load carrier feet and incorporates several additionally beneficial features.
A primary benefit of the carrier foot design of the present invention is that it permits a carrier foot to be engaged upon a supporting base in a substantially vertical direction and without operator manipulation of latching mechanisms in the carrier foot. Installation is accomplished merely by positioning the carrier foot properly upon the base. This eliminates the sliding engagement described above which has been appreciated as a detrimental characteristic of conventionally designed carrier feet. Also, because the latching member of the present invention""s operating mechanism is yieldably biased toward a latching and also locked configuration, the foot can be arranged into the latching and locked configuration before being positioned upon the base and then merely pressed into engagement with the base without further manipulation being required prior to utilization of the carrier foot. A side benefit of this configuration is that it provides a fail-safe design because of the bias toward the locked configuration. That is, the carrier foot is urged away from an unlatching or releasable configuration unless specifically reconfigured thereto by the operator. Still further, an advantageous characteristic of this design is that the carrier foot is made installable and disengageable without the use of tools.
An additional benefit of the present invention is that the operative members of the carrier foot are protectively and permanently housed within the shielding cover of the foot during normal utilization. There is no need to open the foot""s housing since the only part of the operating mechanism requiring user manipulation is a push-button release mechanism. But even when the push button release mechanism is depressed for disengaging the foot from the base, the inner working mechanisms of the foot remain protected within the housing for the device.
A locking mechanism is provided that is capable of preventing depression of the push button release mechanism and in turn unauthorized disengagement of the rack from the base. As in traditional designs, the lock is manipulated between locked and unlocked configurations using a conventionally cut key.
As discussed, in order to adapt a universally designed foot to different roof configurations and therefore different transporting vehicles without varying the carrier foot""s construction, the latching mechanism in the foot includes a latch body that inserts into a space provided under a cylindrical catch bar thereby fastening the foot to the base. The latch body, however, is not fixed to the catch bar of the base, but instead is permitted to slide therearound. In this manner, pivotation of the foot about a longitudinal axis of the catch bar, which is parallel to a longitudinal axis of the foot, is facilitated thereby making it possible to adapt the same foot to differently configured vehicle roof designs. That is, the foot can be variably configured with respect to the base depending upon the pitch of the particular vehicle""s roof at the point at which the base is connected. The top or head portion of the carrier foot in which a cross bar or load strut is engageable is manufactured to be exchangeable on the intermediate body portion of the foot. In the illustrated embodiment, the head portion is permanently fastened to the intermediate body portion before distribution to an end user. In this manner, the configuration of the foot is easily adapted by the manufacturer depending upon the anticipated shape and design of the cross bar expected to be utilized with the particular foot. In the preferred embodiment, a securing mechanism used for releasably securing the cross bar to the head portion of the carrier foot incorporates members having opposed ramped surfaces that when slid relative to one another cause expansion and/or contraction of the securing mechanism into and/or out of securing engagement with the cross bar. An analogous securing device has been more fully described in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,988, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference.
The separate construction of the base member from the carrier foot body makes it possible for that base member to be custom designed for installation upon a particularly configured vehicle. The connection between the base and the carrier foot, however, is made generic so that the foot body need not be individually adapted for different vehicles. This makes providing an array of product for different vehicles much less expensive than in cases in which each foot must to be custom-adapted for a particular vehicle.
As shown, the base can be left on the transporting vehicle with the catch bar exposed when a footed load carrier is not being used. The catch bar can be utilized as a tie-down loop in this configuration for securing other types of loads to the vehicle.
In at least one embodiment, the present invention takes the form of an arrangement for securing a load carrier to a transporting vehicle. The arrangement includes an anchor mechanism that is adapted for securement to a transporting vehicle and for releasable engagement with a carrier foot. The carrier foot of the invention has a latching mechanism for releasable engagement with the anchor mechanism. The latching mechanism is adapted for latching engagement to and disengagement from the anchor mechanism by movement of the carrier foot in a direction substantially perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the carrier foot. An example of such movement is vertical movement substantially of an up and down nature. The latching mechanism has a latching and an unlatching configuration and the latching mechanism is urged toward the latching configuration by a resilient biasing mechanism. Further, the latching mechanism is adapted to move from the latching configuration to the unlatching configuration and back to the latching configuration under the influence of the resilient biasing mechanism and responsive to the carrier foot being positioned into latching engagement upon the anchor mechanism. An example of the resilient biasing mechanism is a spring that yields from a latching configuration to an unlatching configuration of that spring as the latching mechanism moves from its latching configuration to its unlatching configuration.
In the illustrated embodiment, the latching mechanism has an operating mechanism for configuring the latching mechanism between the latching and the unlatching configurations. As shown, the operating mechanism includes a push-button actuator for operating the latching mechanism between the latching and the unlatching configurations. The push-button actuator is operatively associated with and controlled by a lock mechanism that is configured for alternatively allowing and preventing operation of the operating mechanism. Furthermore, the push-button actuator also cooperates with a resilient biasing mechanism for urging the push-button actuator toward a latching configuration.
The arrangement includes a housing configured to encase the operating mechanism and the latching mechanism thereby preventing access to such working mechanisms of the carrier foot. In a preferred embodiment, the push-button actuator is exposed through the housing for operator manipulation. That is, the only portion of the carrier foot that the operator must engage is the push-button actuator, and that is only when disengagement is required. Installation is accomplished without the operator having to manipulate the carrier foot at all, other than to move it into the latched configuration. Optionally, a lock mechanism may also be carried in the push-button actuator for preventing unauthorized actuation.
The anchor mechanism has a catch member and the latching mechanism has a latch body. The latch body is configured for latching cooperation with the catch member. In the illustrated embodiment, the catch member is a bar suspended between a pair of supports. The bar defines a catch area underneath itself for accepting at least a portion of the latch body therein.
The anchor mechanism is adapted to be fixed upon a vehicle with the catch member disposed at a distance from the vehicle. Usually, and as illustrated, this location is proximate the roof edges of the vehicle. The latch body has an abutment surface designed for engagement with the catch member in a latched configuration. As shown, the latch body has an inclined surface that is arranged for sliding engagement against the catch member as the carrier foot is installed upon the anchor mechanism. This sliding engagement causes the latching mechanism to move from the latching configuration into the unlatching configuration thereby permitting installation of the carrier foot into latched engagement upon the anchor mechanism.
Still further, the latching mechanism can be adapted to permit pivotation of the carrier foot about an axis that is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the carrier foot while the carrier foot is latched to the anchor mechanism. This makes it possible for the carrier foot to be utilized on variously pitched vehicular support surfaces, usually automobile roofs having different shapes at their edge regions.
The latching mechanism has an operating mechanism for configuring the latching mechanism between the latched and the unlatching configurations. As shown, the operating mechanism has a pushing shoulder adapted to engage a receiving shoulder of the latch body for transferring or conveying movement of the operating mechanism to the latch body.
In at least one embodiment of the present invention, an exchangeable head assembly is provided that is coupleable; that is, designed to be connected to a top portion of the housing encasement. The exchangeable head assembly is adapted for releasable fixation with a load carrier cross bar. When mounted upon a vehicle, a load carrier cross bar is coupled or connected between two such carrier feet that are each positioned near to opposite end portions of the load carrier cross bar for suspending the cross bar atop the transporting vehicle.
As illustrated, the anchor mechanism additionally includes at least one insert adapted to be securably received in a channel portion of a vehicularly-mounted rooftop track. It is in this way that that particular version of the invention is secured upon a vehicle""s roof that is adapted with such tracks.
In another embodiment, the present invention takes the form of an arrangement for securing a load carrier to a transporting vehicle that has an anchor mechanism adapted for securement to a transporting vehicle and for releasable engagement with a carrier foot. The anchor mechanism has a catch member that is configured for engagement with a latching mechanism. A carrier foot has a latching mechanism that is adapted to assume a latched configuration responsively to being positioned upon the catch member. The arrangement is further adapted to permit pivotation of the latching mechanism relative to the catch member when in a latched configuration so that the carrier foot is permitted to be variably positioned with respect to the anchor mechanism after assumption of the latched configuration.
Still another embodiment of the invention takes the form of a method for securing a load carrier to a transporting vehicle. The method includes providing an anchor mechanism that is adapted for being secured to a transporting vehicle and for releasable engagement with a carrier foot. The anchor mechanism has a catch member that is configured for engagement with a latching mechanism. A carrier foot is installed that has a latching mechanism upon the catch member. The latching mechanism is adapted to assume a latched configuration under the exclusive actuation of the catch member in response to the carrier foot being installed upon the anchor mechanism.
The method further includes resiliently biasing the latching mechanism toward a latching configuration before the carrier foot being installed upon the anchor mechanism. The latching mechanism is then reconfigured from the latching configuration to an unlatched configuration and then to the latched configuration based solely on its cooperation with the catch member as the carrier foot is being installed upon the anchor mechanism. After such installation, the carrier foot may be pivoted relative to the anchor mechanism about an axis substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis of the carrier foot after being installed upon the anchor mechanism and while the latching mechanism is in the latched configuration.
The beneficial effects described above apply generally to the exemplary devices and mechanisms disclosed herein of a load carrier foot arrangement. The specific structures through which these benefits are delivered will be described in detail hereinbelow.